Saturday 20th. December 2008
Blyth 82 Chester le Street 5
Keen to keep up their promotion challenge, second placed Blyth were desperate for some competitive rugby after the recent spate of postponements but were kept waiting by their opponents late arrival. Fortunately Blyth are the only club in this division with floodlights, so the game went ahead albeit forty minutes later than scheduled.
Although Chester did their best it was obvious after fifteen minutes that they were out of their depth as Blyth tore their defence to ribbons: the only question being how many would they score. The pace accelerated through the first half and by the interval Blyth was out of sight with a 50-0 lead. Tries came from scrum half Tony Smithson, hooker Kevin Barratt followed by a trio of spectacular scores: two from winger Andy Barker and one from full back Chris Grey. Second row Craig Turnbull and wing forward Liam Stoker added tries and centre Graeme Sutherland kicked five conversions.
In the second half Blyth used all three substitutes: Scott Robinson for Graham Sutherland at centre, Steve Harding at wing forward for Liam Stoker and Steve Browne for Kev Barratt with prop Martin Stephenson moving from prop to hooker. Maybe the re-arranged team needed time to settle or with the game already won, Blyth took their foot off the pedal, but the pace of the second half was more pedestrian and the expected cricket score did not materialise. Tries came at regular intervals from Stephenson, Smithson’s second wing forward Wayne Davie, number 8 Ryan Davison, right wing Dean Langdon and perhaps the best of the match, a solo try from centre James Bostock who was also voted ‘Man of the match’. The only conversion was from fly half Gregg Dawson. In the dying seconds, replacement front row, Dave Anderson crossed the line for a consolation try for the visitors.
Afterwards Coach Joe Miller was full of praise for Blyth, saying, “In a way it was a frustrating afternoon, but we did what we had to do and I think did it with some style.”
Next Sat. December 27th a Blyth XV are at home to a Morpeth Select K.O. 2.15pm. Blyth’s next league game is at South Shields against South Tyneside College on Sat. January 10th at 2.15pm.
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